When to cancel your GST registration

Cancelling your GST registration will not cancel or close your business, it is just your GST registration that's being cancelled. You don't have to be GST registered, or continue to be GST registered, to be in business or trading.

You must cancel your GST registration
If you stop your taxable activity and don't intend to start a new taxable activity within the next 12 months you must cancel your registration within 21 days.

You should consider cancelling your GST registration
If your turnover for the next 12 months will be under $60,000, or you've been filing nil returns for some time, consider cancelling your GST registration. You can choose to stay GST registered if you like, but you'll have to continue to meet all the requirements of being GST registered.

You can't cancel your GST registration
If GST is built into your prices you can't cancel your GST registration even if your annual turnover is under $60,000. For example, a taxi driver must be registered for GST regardless of their turnover because GST is built into the price they charge.

How to cancel your GST registration

You can cancel your GST registration in myIR by going into the GST account in My GST and selecting "Cease GST registration" under Manage GST Registration in the Activity Centre.

If you file a paper GST return, send us a letter with your GST cancellation details or call us on 0800 377 776.

Cancelling a separate registration

If you've registered branches or divisions of your business separately, the parent body can cancel the separate registration of any of the branches at any time. You can do this in myIR by selecting "Cease GST registration" under Manage GST Registration in the Activity Centre.

After cancellation, the parent body must account for GST and be responsible for all of the branches' taxable activities.

If you cancel the parent body's GST registration, the separate GST registrations of the branches will be cancelled automatically.

Notice confirming your cancellation

We will send you a notice confirming your cancellation date.

Until you get this notice, you must continue to meet all the requirements of being GST registered, including filing returns and making payments on time.

Completing your final GST return

Your final GST return must include all taxable goods and services from the beginning of the taxable period to the date of the GST cancellation.

Keeping assets after cancelling GST registration

If you keep assets after cancelling your GST registration, either for private use or for use in another business, you need to make an adjustment in your final GST return.

Exception: Assets that were mainly for private use, but with GST adjustments made for the business use, don't need to be included in your final GST return.

Accounting for assets you want to keep

The amount of the adjustment for assets you want to keep is calculated as 3/23s of the open market value. That is, multiply the open market value by 3 then divide by 23. The open market value is the value of an asset if it were sold today.

You must return the GST on the open market value of the asset regardless of your accounting basis.

What do we mean when we say open market value

Open market value is the price you might reasonably expect to get for an asset in a competitive auction setting in New Zealand on that date.

You don't have to be GST registered to operate

You don't have to be GST registered, or continue to be GST registered, just because you're in business or trading. If your annual turnover is less than $60,000 you can still operate as a company, partnership or sole trader, without being GST registered, unless you include GST in your prices.